As a postscript to the usual monthly chart, we’ve decided to share details of our fifty best-selling titles across the board for the whole of 2020, with Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson's spellbinding recital of Rameau and Debussy (released in March on Deutsche Grammophon) taking pride of place; you can read James’s full review of the recording here, and his in-depth interview with Víkingur here.
British conductor John Wilson and Sinfonia of London proved extremely popular, with all three of their recordings to date featuring in the Top Ten. Look out for their next album English Music for Strings, due out on Chandos on 29th January and inspired by John Barbirolli's recording of the same name with the orchestra, which Wilson declared 'may be my single Desert Island Disc' when he spoke to James last year.
No. 1
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 2
Alina Ibragimova (violin), State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia 'Evgeny Svetlanov', Vladimir Jurowski
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 3
Sean Shibe (guitar)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 4
Nicola Benedetti (violin), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 5
Paul Lewis (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 6
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 7
Stephen Hough (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 8
Escales
French Orchestral Works
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 9
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 10
No. 11
Joyce DiDonato (Agrippina), Elsa Benoit (Poppea), Luca Pisaroni (Claudio), Franco Fagioli (Nerone), Jakub Józef Orliński (Ottone), Andrea Mastroni (Pallante), Carlo Vistoli (Narciso), Biagio Pizzuti (Lesbo), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Giunone)
Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
Available formats: 3 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 12
Kremerata Baltica, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gidon Kremer, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 13
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 14
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Anna Dennis (soprano), Mhairi Lawson (soprano), Ashley Riches (bass-baritone), Roderick Williams (baritone)
Gabrieli, Paul McCreesh
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 15
Marc-André Hamelin (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 16
Grigory Sokolov (piano)
Available format: 2 CDs + DVD Video
No. 17
Silver Age
Scriabin - Stravinsky - Prokofiev
Daniil Trifonov (piano), Mariinsky Orchestra, Valéry Gergiev
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 18
Stephen Hough (piano), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu
Available formats: 3 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 19
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 20
Jean Rondeau (harpsichord), Thomas Dunford (lute), Lea Desandre (mezzo-soprano), Marc Mauillon (baritone), Myriam Rignol (viola da gamba)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 21
Isabelle Faust (violin), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 22
Mark Stone (baritone), Kirill Gerstein (piano), Christianne Stotijn (mezzo-soprano), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Adès
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 23
Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Elim Chan
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 24
Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 25
Garrick Ohlsson (piano), Takács Quartet
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 26
Josquin: Masses
Hercules Dux Ferrarie, D'ung aultre amer & Missa Faysant regretz
The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 176.4 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 27
Sarah Connolly (mezzo), Robert Dean Smith (tenor), Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 28
Voces8
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 29
Lucy Crowe (Vixen), Gerald Finley (Forester), Sophia Burgos (Fox), Jan Martiník (Badger/Parson), Peter Hoare (Mosquito/Rooster/Schoolmaster), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Harašta)
London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle
Available formats: 2 SACDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 30
Andrew Haveron (violin), RTÉ Concert Orchestra, John Wilson, Sinfonia of London Chamber Ensemble
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 31
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi
Available formats: 3 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 32
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello), London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 33
No. 34
Benjamin Bruns (Evangelist), Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Aki Matsui (soprano), Damien Guillon (counter-tenor), Clint van der Linde (baritone), Makato Sakurada (tenor), Zachary Wilder (tenor), Christian Immler (baritone), Toru Kaku (bass)
Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
Available format: 2 SACDs
No. 35
Selige Stunde
Romantic Songs
Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), Helmut Deutsch (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 36
Véronique Gens (soprano), I Giardini
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 37
No. 38
Isabelle Faust (violin), Bernhard Forck (violin), Xenia Loeffler (oboe)
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 39
The Kanneh-Masons, with Michael Morpurgo and Olivia Colman
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 40
Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 41
Vilde Frang (violin), Barnabás Kelemen (violin), Lawrence Power (viola), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), Alexander Lonquich (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 42
Steven Osborne (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 43
Helena Dix (soprano), Christine Rice (mezzo-soprano), Benjamin Hulett (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone)
BBC Concert Orchestra, Bach Choir, David Hill
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 44
Xenia Löffler (oboe), Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 45
Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 46
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 47
Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Casado
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 48
James Ehnes (violin), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 49
Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 50
Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Casado
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
